Ezekiel 20:35

THE MESSAGE

Parallel Translations

Christian Standard Bible®
I will lead you into the wilderness of the peoples and enter into judgment with you there face to face.

Hebrew Names Version
and I will bring you into the wilderness of the peoples, and there will I enter into judgment with you face to face.

King James Version
And I will bring you into the wilderness of the people, and there will I plead with you face to face.

English Standard Version
And I will bring you into the wilderness of the peoples, and there I will enter into judgment with you face to face.

New American Standard Bible
and I will bring you into the wilderness of the peoples, and there I will enter into judgment with you face to face.

New Century Version
I will bring you among the nations as I brought your ancestors into the desert with Moses. There I will judge you face to face.

Amplified Bible
and I will bring you into the wilderness of the peoples, and there I will enter into judgment with you and contend with you face to face.

World English Bible
and I will bring you into the wilderness of the peoples, and there will I enter into judgment with you face to face.

Geneva Bible (1587)
And I will bring you into the wildernes of the people, and there wil I pleade with you face to face.

New American Standard Bible (1995)
and I will bring you into the wilderness of the peoples, and there I will enter into judgment with you face to face.

Legacy Standard Bible
and I will bring you into the wilderness of the peoples, and there I will enter into judgment with you face to face.

Berean Standard Bible
And I will bring you into the wilderness of the nations, where I will enter into judgment with you face to face.

Contemporary English Version
and lead you into a desert surrounded by nations. I will meet you there face to face. Then I will pass judgment on you

Complete Jewish Bible
then I will bring you into the desert of the peoples and judge you face to face.

Darby Translation
and I will bring you into the wilderness of the peoples, and there will I enter into judgment with you face to face.

Easy-to-Read Version
I will lead you into a desert as I did before, but this will be a place where other nations live. We will stand face to face, and I will judge you.

George Lamsa Translation
And I will bring you into the wilderness of the Gentiles, and there will I judge you face to face.

Good News Translation
I will bring you into the ‘Desert of the Nations,' and there I will condemn you to your face.

Lexham English Bible
Then I will bring you to the desert of the peoples, and I will execute justice on you there face to face.

Literal Translation
And I will bring you into the wilderness of the peoples, and I will be judging face to face there with you.

Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
& wil bringe you in to the wildernesse of the people, & there I will reason with you face to face.

American Standard Version
and I will bring you into the wilderness of the peoples, and there will I enter into judgment with you face to face.

Bible in Basic English
And I will take you into the waste land of the peoples, and there I will take up the cause with you face to face.

JPS Old Testament (1917)
and I will bring you into the wilderness of the peoples, and there will I plead with you face to face.

King James Version (1611)
And I wil bring you into the wildernes of the people, and there will I plead with you face to face.

Bishop's Bible (1568)
And I wyll bryng you into the wildernesse of the people, & there I wyll be iudged with you face to face.

Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
And I will bring you into the wilderness of the nations, and will plead with you there face to face.

English Revised Version
and I will bring you into the wilderness of the peoples, and there will I plead with you face to face.

Wycliffe Bible (1395)
And Y schal bringe you in to desert of puplis, and Y schal be demed there with you face to face.

Update Bible Version
and I will bring you into the wilderness of the peoples, and there I will enter into judgment with you face to face.

Webster's Bible Translation
And I will bring you into the wilderness of the people, and there will I plead with you face to face.

New English Translation
I will bring you into the wilderness of the nations, and there I will enter into judgment with you face to face.

New King James Version
And I will bring you into the wilderness of the peoples, and there I will plead My case with you face to face.

New Living Translation
I will bring you into the wilderness of the nations, and there I will judge you face to face.

New Life Bible
I will bring you into the desert of the nations, and there I will punish you face to face.

New Revised Standard
and I will bring you into the wilderness of the peoples, and there I will enter into judgment with you face to face.

J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
And I will bring you into the desert of the peoples, - and will contend with you there, I face to face.

Douay-Rheims Bible
And I will bring you into the wilderness of people, and there will I plead with you face to face.

Revised Standard Version
and I will bring you into the wilderness of the peoples, and there I will enter into judgment with you face to face.

Young's Literal Translation
And I have brought you in unto the wilderness of the peoples, And have been judged with you there face to face.

Contextual Overview

³³"‘As sure as I am the living God, says God , the Master, think again! With a mighty show of strength and a terrifying rush of anger, I will be King over you! I'll bring you back from the nations, collect you out of the countries to which you've been scattered, with a mighty show of strength and a terrifying rush of anger. I'll bring you to the desert of nations and haul you into court, where you'll be face-to-face with judgment. ³⁶"‘As I faced your parents with judgment in the desert of Egypt, so I'll face you with judgment. I'll scrutinize and search every person as you arrive, and I'll bring you under the bond of the covenant. I'll cull out the rebels and traitors. I'll lead them out of their exile, but I won't bring them back to Israel. "‘Then you'll realize that I am God . ³⁹"‘But you, people of Israel, this is the Message of God , the Master, to you: Go ahead, serve your no-god idols! But later, you'll think better of it and quit throwing filth and mud on me with your pagan offerings and no-god idols. For on my holy mountain, the high mountain of Israel, I, God , the Master, tell you that the entire people of Israel will worship me. I'll receive them there with open arms. I'll demand your best gifts and offerings, all your holy sacrifices. What's more, I'll receive you as the best kind of offerings when I bring you back from all the lands and countries in which you've been scattered. I'll demonstrate in the eyes of the world that I am The Holy. When I return you to the land of Israel, the land that I solemnly promised with upraised arm to give to your parents, you'll realize that I am God . Then and there you'll remember all that you've done, the way you've lived that has made you so filthy—and you'll loathe yourselves. ⁴⁴ "‘But, dear Israel, you'll also realize that I am God when I respond to you out of who I am, not by what I feel about the evil lives you've lived, the corrupt history you've compiled. Decree of God , the Master.'"

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

I will: Ezekiel 20:36, Ezekiel 19:13, Ezekiel 38:8, Hosea 2:14, Micah 4:10, Micah 7:13-15, Revelation 12:14

and there: Ezekiel 17:20, Ezekiel 38:22, Jeremiah 2:9, Jeremiah 2:35, Jeremiah 25:31, Hosea 4:1, Micah 6:1, Micah 6:2

Reciprocal: Job 23:6 - plead Hosea 2:3 - as

Gill's Notes on the Bible

And I will bring you into the wilderness of the people,.... Into Babylon, and into captivity there, which they thought to avoid by fleeing to other countries. Some think that those inhospitable nations are meant, Syro-media, Caspia, Hyrcania, Iberia, and others, into which many of the Jews were brought, who sought to live elsewhere than at Babylon; and others are of opinion that this respects the time of their return from Babylon to their own land, between which lay a wilderness, here referred to; but perhaps the prophecy respects the present state of the Jews, in which they have continued ever since their destruction by the Romans; through whom they have been brought among the several nations of the world, particularly the Roman empire, compared to a wilderness; and represented as a populous one, as it is, and in which the beast, or antichrist, now is; see Revelation 17:3 and there will I plead with you face to face; judge, condemn, and take vengeance, or inflict punishment on them in the most public manner, as he now does. The Targum is, "and I will take vengeance on you face to face".

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

God’s future dealings with His people:

(1) in judgment Ezekiel 20:32-38;

(2) in mercy Ezekiel 20:39-44.

Ezekiel 20:32

The inquirers had thought that if Jerusalem were taken, and the whole people became sojourners in a foreign land, they would cease to be a separate nation. In their love for idolatry some may have even desired this. But more probably they thought that this very consequence precluded the possibility of such a catastrophe. God answers that He will not allow them to become as the pagan, but this will only subject them to severer trial and stricter rule.

Ezekiel 20:33

The expressions “a mighty hand, stretched out arm” carry back the thoughts to Egyptian bondage Deuteronomy 4:34; Deuteronomy 5:15; but then it was for deliverance, now for judgment “with fury poured out.”

Ezekiel 20:35

The wilderness of the people - A time of probation will follow, as before in the wilderness of Sin, so in the “wilderness of the nations” among whom they will sojourn (not the Babylonians) “after” that captivity. This period of their probation is not over. The dispersion of the Jews did not cease with the return under Zerubbabel; but in our Saviour’s time they were living as a distinct people in all the principal places in the civilized world; and so they live now. God is yet pleading with them “face to face,” calling them personally to embrace those offers which as a nation they disregarded.

Ezekiel 20:37

To pass under the rod - i. e., to be gathered into the flock Micah 7:14.

The bond - The shepherd collects the flock, and separates the sheep from the goats, which are rejected. Compare Romans 11:7-11.

Ezekiel 20:39

Strong irony. Some prefer another rendering: “Go ye, serve ye every one his idols, yet hereafter ye shall surely hearken unto me, and shall no more pollute My Holy Name etc.” In this way, this verse is introductory to what follows.

Ezekiel 20:40

This points to the consummation indicated by the vision of the temple.

In the mountain of the height - Or, Upon a very high mountain Ezekiel 40:2. Compare Isaiah 2:2-3.

The house of Israel, all of them - All the separation between Israel and Judah shall cease. This points to times yet future, when in Messiah’s kingdom Jews and Gentiles alike shall be gathered into one kingdom - the kingdom of Christ. Jerusalem is the Church of Christ Galatians 4:26, into which the children of Israel shall at last be gathered, and so the prophecy shall be fulfilled Revelation 21:2.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Ezekiel 20:35. I will bring you into the wilderness of the people — I will bring you out of your captivity, and bring you into your own land, which you will find to be a wilderness, the consequence of your crimes.

There will I plead with you — There I will be your king, and rule you with a sovereign rule; and the dispensations of my justice and mercy shall either end you or mend you.